It’s that time of year, frosty morning starts are here again. Has anyone tried using a car cover or something just to cover the windscreen that the frost and snow will form on top of and you can just rip off in the morning?
I’ve done the whole routing of having to get up earlier and spend a lot of time with deicer and a plastic scraper to defrost the car in the morning before, but if there’s a better way I’d be interested to know what people would recommend.
mx5parts.co.uk have one that goes around the windows, which might be my best option. Has anyone tried this?
With a car in a drive, I used to have one of those small oil filled electric heaters in the cabin of my car (not MX-5). I switched it on a hour before I was due to leave. Possibly not the safest thing to do, but the car was nicely defrosted and warm
Call me stupid all the cars I’ve had in 55 years I’ve used a jug of barely warm water on glass and headlamps and never cracked a window yet. Whoops should I have admitted that
Just go out and start it before you have your breakfast. When you want to go it’s toasty warm and defrosted. The Memsahib recently acquired a new Lexus which lets you do the same thing from your smartphone. The times they are a changing
No problem admitting it, i have been doing that for donkey’s years too. I use fairly hot water and a squeegee and as long as it’s not boiling (obviously) it works great!
They won’t pay out if you’ve left it with the keys in the ignition. Someone I used to work with left one of our vans running once and came back to an empty van sized space!
I’ve used the Mazda half covers (I’ve been through 4 now) for 7 years+, and I@m lucky that I don’t have to use my ND on frosty mornings etc, as with the half covers, they freeze to the body bits of the car they touch, say the bits on the rear arches, the fuel cap area, and the bit by the top rear brake light. Even where they fit into the boot too. More so if it’s one of those nights where it initially rains, but then clears up and freezes. I wouldn’t want to be messing trying to prize off a solid frozen on cover to those parts.
I know. I can never figure that one out. Same with not locking a house door etc. Point is a crime still occurred. Someone still made a personal decision to commit a crime. I mean, wouldn’t pinch someone’s idling car in the street, or ransack someone’s house if I noticed they left their door open and went to work, so it’s not like a thief isn’t making a decision to commit a crime.
I use a strip of bubble wrap with the bubbles against the glass. Also helps to insulate the glass and make easy to remove. Secure by closing the doors on it as it does not damage the seals.
My understanding is thieves are opportunists, if you give them an easy way in they will take it, that is why insurance companies don’t pay out on unlocked houses and cars with keys in, part of the deal is the insured has to make at least a cursory attempt at protecting their property
I treat my windscreen annually with Soft99 Glaco (it’s like a Ceramic glass sealant and lasts around 12 months) and use their defrost spray when it gets icy, it works a treat, melts the ice and tops up the hydrophobic layer, leaving a clear windscreen in no time!
Yes, seems the way it’d be.
Makes you think what’s wrong with people/society though.
Wider topics etc, but is it upbringing, morals, conscience, sense of right and wrong etc
I mean, I wouldn’t steal an idling car, or pinch a sat nave out of an unlocked car, or burgle someone’s house who left a door unlocked etc. Is that as my parents instilled that me in once upon a time, is it having some sort of conscience and moral compass? Big questions lol
Here’s a quic, recent one: About 2 months ago, walking back with the dog by my street, I saw a decent Tom Tom on the floor. I picked it up and it looked fine. Took it home and later in the day powered it up, and it had the person’s details saved, his email address. So I emailed the person, explaining the situation, and in 2 minutes the person replied, chuffed as chips. We met up at the same place I found it, and he told me someone, an ‘opportunist’ had pinched it out of his car the night before. Silly he said, leaving it in there, especially as his car door is iffy. Guy was over the moon, offered me £20 which of course I refused, saying don’t worry about it, it’s nice to do a good dead.
Question is, who got the best ‘feeling’, me who returned something which belonged to someone else and seeing him over the moon, or the ‘opportunist’ who pinched a sat nav and, for some reason, slung it out of a car? I’m certainly not Peter Perfect, but one person is better than the other there. The nice sat nav owner emailed me back to, to say thanks.
Same thing the other xmas time to, after I found a pensioner’s smart phone. I called one of his contacts and he told me who’s phone it was and where he lived. Poor guy had been out in the rain looking everywhere for it. It’s surprising how nice it feels doing someone a good turn when there’s nothing in it for you.
Been wondering about that after seeing something on YT about the Brinks Matt shrubbery one of the main chaps involved got 25 years and none of the gold was recovered. I’d not want to do one minuete at Charlies liesure for that kind of lolly, yet some seem to treat it as Norman Stanley Fletcher put it, ’an occupational hazard’.
At Whiteley’s shopping centre car park in Bayswater London, i once found a small purse with a five pound note and a Yale type key inside. I took it to the centre security and thought no more about it. A week later i received a lovely postcard from the owner (Hazel) saying i had restored her faith in human nature….that was nice.
Good tip! Easier to stop the ice forming in the first place than having to remove it. I use some silver backed floor insulation left over from a wooden floor installation a few years ago. My wife’s Fiesta has heated elements in the front screen and it is really quick and efficient. All cars should have such systems IMO.
all the cars I’ve had in 55 years I’ve used a jug of barely warm water on glass and headlamps and never cracked a window yet. Whoops should I have admitted that 
